Blame It
by TheCocaineDiaries
Summary: Connor and Cheng Li are drunk. Grace is appalled.


"Hey… hey, _Connor_! What the fuck is your problem?"

Connor blinked his eyes open to see a very pissed off Cheng Li. He looked at the suddenly empty cup in his hands to her soaked coat sleeve and his eyes grew impossibly wide. "Oh my god… I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, Cheng Li!"

She looked at him for a moment before sighing. "It's alright. You've had too much to drink." She rolled her eyes before taking a long sip of the drink in her hands.

Connor squinted his eyes at her. "Why aren't _you _drunk, Cheng Li?" he asked her in a too-loud voice.

She shrugged. "You'll find I have a sufficiently high tolerance toward alcohol," she said, finishing off with another swig, which, to Connor's surprise, seemed to have no effect on her.

"But… Cheng Li, you're only 19! That's not even the legal drinking age! How do you know how high your tolerance is or not?"

She turned to Connor, eyes telling him that she was clearly doubting his intelligence. "Alcohol is a common aspect of pirate life," she answered him, as though the answer should have been obvious. "And I have been a pirate my entire life. It was bound to happen at some point. Besides, you're barely 15, and completely wasted, so why are you asking _me_ questions?"

Connor shook his head slowly. "I don't know. Back in Crescent Moon Bay, Grace and I were the 'bad' kids at school. We cut class and talked back to the teacher and stuff. But we never did anything this bad!"

Cheng Li chuckled at Connor's innocence. "You're a pirate. There are much worse things you'll have to do soon. Get used to it."

Connor frowned. He could barely hear the sounds of the rest of The Diablo's crew as they got rowdy and drunk beside him, and stood up to face Cheng Li. "You're so… you're so…!" He was cut off as he stumbled and grasped the table for support. The rest of his crewmates protested as he accidentally knocked over some of their glasses. He let go of the table and nearly toppled over Cheng Li.

"Jesus, Connor!" she yelled, angry again. She stood up to grab Connor by his shirt collar and forced him back into his chair.

Connor stared at her and noticed a slight sway in her step. "Oh my god! You're drunk, Cheng Li!"

She appeared flustered and glared at him. "No, I'm not." She regarded her wobbly legs nervously. "This is just a minor case of land legs."

Connor let out a huge laugh, yelling, "Cheng Li is drunk! Cheng Li is drunk!" over and over again, causing the entire table to peer at them curiously.

Cheng Li felt her cheeks grow warm at their stares and wondered if they were looking at Connor or at her. She sent them a firm glare, shouting, "There will be the usual morning duties tomorrow, whether you're hungover or not!" and slumping back into her seat.

Connor was still laughing, and Cheng Li glanced at him before rolling her eyes. "Connor, get a hold of yourself. You're not going to be able to mop the deck properly tomorrow."

Connor wiped a tear of laughter from his eye. "Yeah, right. You're going to be too tired to give orders tomorrow, I bet!"

Cheng Li wasn't completely sure that Connor's tone of voice was appropriate to use with his deputy captain. "Pipe down. If you don't sober up soon I'm going to let the cold of the ocean below us do it," she warned as she held her head in her hand, not looking at him.

Connor stuck his tongue out and yelled another, "Yeah, right!" before attempting to stand up on his legs again. He was surprised at their steadiness and leaned against the table with a smug smile.

"Hey, lad, watch it!" Bartholomew said as Connor knocked over his drink again.

Connor widened his stance and managed to study himself, but not before he had spilled Cheng Li's drink all over her again. He flinched as she shot up from her seat and grabbed him by his shirt. "That's it," she grunted angrily before dragging him away from the table.

"Hey, what're you doing with my brother?" they heard Grace call from the other side of the table.

"Yeah, what're you doing with me?" Connor repeated, struggling in Cheng Li's grasp. He was becoming genuinely frightened as she led him to the other side of the pub, where a huge chunk of the floor was missing. "No! No, please, Cheng Li, I'm sorry! Don't throw me in!"

Cheng Li struggled to hold Connor's arms back and she eventually surrendered and let him go. She felt the alcohol burning at her stomach and felt woozy. She stepped back until she plopped down upon the sill of a huge window overlooking the dark ocean. She blinked her almond eyes, trying to keep her head straight.

"Hey, I'm sorry, Cheng Li. I didn't mean to spill a drink on you," Connor said as he followed her to her seat on the window sill.

Cheng Li frowned. "Again."

Connor rolled his eyes, but nodded vigorously. "Can you forgive me? Please!"

Cheng Li was surprised at his drunken distress and slowly nodded her head. "Yeah. I forgive you, Connor."

He smiled hugely and leaped back up, then wincing as the liquor danced uncomfortably in his body. "Hey, I'll go buy you another drink, okay?"

Before Cheng Li could protest, Connor was already off, pushing past people to reach the bar. Halfway across the floor, he stumbled and nearly fell, but was rescued at the last minute by Sugar Pie. Cheng Li narrowed her eyes dangerously as the two of them seemed to be thrust into merry conversation. She waited impatiently for the glittery waitress to leave him alone. Connor strolled back to his seat next to Cheng Li, grinning hugely.

"I just talked Sugar Pie out of a free drink!" he announced.

Cheng Li grunted in response. They waited until Sugar Pie, clad in a shiny pink ensemble that night, skipped to them and presented Cheng Li with a large new tankard. Cheng Li, being a naturally polite soul, thanked her and sent her on her way. She turned to Connor, who was holding his own drink, and heard the clack as he touched his cup with hers.

"Cheers!" he exclaimed, motioning for her to drink. He flipped his tankard over into his mouth and didn't stop until all the liquid was down his throat.

Cheng Li complied and did the same. She winced and made a face as the liquor burned down her throat. "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea for you, Connor," she said. "You're already wasted."

Connor snorted. "You worry too much."

Cheng Li raised an eyebrow. "That's what you think."

It took a while for the rum to finally affect Connor's body, but Cheng Li was pretty certain that it had now happened. She stared as the boy attempted to dance in his seat to a bad song the band was playing on stage. She felt herself slipping from her seat suddenly, and managed to catch herself at the last second. She looked down at the floor with surprised eyes.

"Cheng Li, you okay?" Connor asked. He grinned when he saw her nearly doubled over.

She turned and leaned against the wall, legs folded on the length of the window sill. She was sleepy, but she refused to let herself go in a dingy pub with only Connor as her babysitter, so she forced her eyes open and watched Connor stare at her expectantly.

"What?" she grunted.

"I've never seen you like this," Connor said, grinning.

Cheng Li groaned and lifted her hands to her face, trying to cover herself before Connor saw anything that would cause him to run over to the rest of the crew and blab about how unprofessional their deputy captain was. She felt a hand on her arm and blinked at Connor oddly.

"Why do you cover your face?" he asked. "Do you care what I think about you?"

Cheng Li frowned in confusion, and let herself have a moment to process what he had said. "What...?"she finally managed to let out before she felt Connor's lips on hers.

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she wanted to tell him no, that she didn't care what_ he_ thought, it was what the rest of the crew did, or else she could lose her authority over them, but, in her drunken state, she couldn't find the strength to gently push him off and set him straight. She let herself be kissed for a while before Connor finally pulled away, his cheeks red with excitement.

She opened her mouth to tell him that she didn't think of him in that way, hell, he was just a kid, but the words wouldn't leave her mouth and she just giggled uncharacteristically, head slipping hazily from its place on the wall.

"Oh my god!" Grace exclaimed, suddenly right in front of Connor and Cheng Li. Her face was bright pink, and without a doubt, she had witnessed the kiss. "Connor, enough! You've got to go to bed, or you'll get ill." She glanced awkwardly back at Cheng Li and added, "And we've got much to talk about tomorrow…" She grabbed Connor by his arm and dragged him out of the pub.

Cheng Li was suddenly alone, and she blinked for a moment before picking herself up and walking herself to her own cabin. She had had _way _too much to drink.

---

A/N: I wrote this when I was drunk, to be honest, therefore, it is uncharacteristically light and slightly cracktastic. Enjoy ;).


End file.
